For many years an ever increasing problem has existed involving the theft of merchandise from areas used for the display and sale thereof. This problem is not resolvable merely by placing the merchandise in concealed areas as it is essential that they be exposed and easily accessible when the sale is accomplished.
There have been numerous attempts to solve the foregoing problem, as for example, by the provision of standard lock arrangements having conventional keys which are engaged with the cabinet doors and the provision of locks with internal bar arrangements adapted to engage portions of the cabinet panels and prevent unauthorized opening thereof. Still other attempts proposed devices which include ratchet and cam arrangements in order to overcome the pilferage problem which was not solved thereby but instead increased in enormity. The unacceptability of the structure of the proposed solution is in part due to the complexity of the proposed structures, in part due to the relative expense thereof and in part due to the inability of the apparatus to satisfactorily function. In addition, the mechanisms of the proposed solutions were susceptible to the breakdown of any one of a number of cooperating parts which made the devices difficult to lock and subsequently unlock.
Of significance is the fact that prior art devices required that the lock, once opened, be physically closed by a separate independent operation once the merchandise had been removed. In many instances, this independent locking action was overlooked by the party dispensing the merchandise whereupon the goods remained exposed to pilferage. As a consequence, in many instances the devices which were the subject of the proposed solutions to the problem were discarded.